Marion Williams

Marion Williams was an American gospel singer whose voice, the New York Times said, was distinctive for "pure sustained tones, swooping phrases and deep growls", and stars such as Little Richard, Aretha Franklin and Billy Preston acknowledged her influence. She sang with the top 1950s gospel group the Clara Ward Singers before a solo career that led to international acclaim, popular recordings and major awards including a genius grant from the MacArthur Foundation and the Kennedy Center Honors. Born in Florida, she sang in church as a child and after she joined the Clara Ward Singers in 1947 she developed a style influenced by jazz and blues and emerged as the gospel group's lead singer throughout the 1950s. In 1958, with other members of the group, she formed the Stars of Faith whose appearances included a Broadway stint in Langston Hughes's musical 'Black Nativity' in 1961. Williams embarked on a solo career in the mid-'60s and began to tour the world including Africa, sponsored by the US State Department. She made many recordings and sang in secular venues such as the Cookery in New York's Greenwich Village although her base was a church in Philadelphia. In 1992, she appeared in the feature film 'Fried Green Tomatoes' and sang with Wynton Marsalis at the premiere of his gospel suite 'In This House/On This Morning'. She toured college campuses and sang at jazz festivals in Europe, the Caribbean and Africa. Plagued by ill health, she started dialysis treatment in 1988 but carried on with her career. She died from vascular disease aged 66 in Philadelphia.

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